A prober is known as a substrate inspection apparatus which inspects electric characteristics of a semiconductor device, such as a power device or a memory, formed on a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter, simply referred to as “wafer”) as a substrate.
The prober includes a circular plate-shaped probe card having a multiple number of probe needles; and a stage to be freely moved in upward, downward, leftward and rightward directions while holding the wafer thereon. The prober inspects an electric characteristic of a semiconductor device by bringing the probe needles of the probe card into contact with electrode pads or solder bumps of the semiconductor device and by allowing an inspection current to be flown to the electrode pads or the solder bumps from the probe needles (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
In the prober, since the probe needles of the probe card are brought into contact with the electrode pads or the like repeatedly, tip ends of the probe needles may be worn out. Thus, the probe needles need to be replaced periodically.
Conventionally, to replace the probe needles, the probe card also needs to be replaced, for the probe needles are welded to a wiring within the probe card. Since, however, the probe card is provided within a main body of the prober, it is difficult to replace the probe card. Furthermore, since the probe card is of a high price, it takes high cost to replace the probe card.
In this regard, there has been proposed a prober having a probe head (probe insert) 121 to be detachably attached to a card 120, as shown in FIG. 12 (see, for example, Patent Document 2). In this prober, probe needles 122 are concentrated at the probe head 121, and the probe needles 122 whose tip ends are worn-out can be replaced just by replacing this probe head 121.
Further, to facilitate the replacement of the probe head 121, there has been proposed a method of replacement with a pivotable clamp 123 provided at the card 120. According to this replacement method, if the card 120 is pressed against the probe head 121, as shown in FIG. 13A, the clamp 123 is pivoted down, so that the probe head 121 is held in place, as shown in FIG. 13B.
Furthermore, there has been also proposed another method of replacement with a configuration in which flanges 141 are partially provided at a periphery of a circular plate-shaped probe head 140 (FIG. 14A and FIG. 14D), and a cylindrical clamp 143 partially having flanges 142 at a tip end of the card 120 (FIG. 14A and FIG. 14C) is provided. In this replacement method, the probe head 140 is inserted into the clamp 143 and then is rotated relative to the clamp 143. Accordingly, the flanges 141 of the probe head 140 are engaged with the flanges 142 of the clamp 143, as shown in FIG. 14B and FIG. 14E, so that the probe head 140 is held in place.
However, the card 120 shown in FIG. 13A to FIG. 13B or in FIG. 14A to FIG. 14E is disposed within the main body of the prober, and a working space for an operator is not secured within the main body of the prober. Thus, the card 120 needs to be detached from the prober to replace the probe head 121 or 140 and then attached to the prober again.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. H07-297242    Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2009-500633